Parents, caregivers, and others responsible for oversight of children and elderly and disabled persons must be notified quickly when such persons may not be safe. Such guardians may use mobile devices. A typical mobile device issues audible and vibratory alerts for many reasons, few of which call for immediate attention. A device user naturally becomes desensitized to such alerts and may lose a sense of urgency when most alerts are of a non-emergency and even trivial nature. When the relatively rare alert is received that does indicate an emergency, the device user may not may not respond as quickly as is necessary, increasing the risk level of a situation and exposing the user to liability for reacting slowly. Parents and caregivers, particularly with children in public places, cannot afford to lose valuable time when a potential emergency occurs.